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Beebe Medical Centers Earns W.L.Gore Award for Excellence

12/27/06

The Delaware Alliance for Excellence, a partnership between the University of Delaware's Division of Professional and Continuing Studies and the Delaware Quality Award Initiative, has announced that Beebe Medical Center has earned the W. L. Gore Award.

The Delaware Quality Award was established in 1992 in honor of W. L. (Bill) Gore for the direction he gave his company, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., in promoting excellence, innovation, and a positive working environment. In 2005, in order to expand training and consulting services, the initiative was expanded to form the Delaware Alliance for Excellence as a University of Delaware program. Its mission is to educate and support continuous improvement initiatives throughout the region and to recognize the achievement of performance excellence.

Applying the federal government's criteria for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the award program examines the essential elements of successfully run organizations, including leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, human resources focus, and process improvement.

Governor Ruth Ann Minner will present the award on March 21, 2007, in conjunction with the Delaware Quality Conference.

"We are committed to excellence in the business, government, and nonprofit sectors in Delaware," Minner said. "Using the Delaware Quality Award criteria for performance excellence can help all organizations make Delaware a better place to work and live."

"It is truly an honor for Beebe Medical Center to be selected as the 2006 W. L. Gore Award winner," said Jeffrey M. Fried, president and CEO. "The Delaware Quality Award process is excellent because it forces organizations like ours to look inward and challenges us to be honest with ourselves about what we do well, and where we have opportunities for improvement. Performance improvement is fundamental to Beebe's culture as it reminds us every day to think about how we can improve our processes, and subsequently the care we provide our patients."

Beebe Medical Center received Delaware Quality Awards in 2003, 2004, and 2005, and this year earned the W. L. Gore award, Delaware's highest level of recognition for performance excellence.

The Delaware Alliance for Excellence is house at the University of Delaware's Downtown Center for Performance Excellence at 8th and King streets in Wilmington. For more information, contact John Riabov at (302) 571-5239.